Warning : The following post contains nudity/adult content.

Released in commemoration with ‘The World Of Shirow Masamune Manga Exhibition’ held in Tokyo in 2025 ( read about my visit to the exhibition here ), this 304 pages whopper of an art book celebrates the art and illustrations of the legendary comic artist who bought us Appleseed, Ghost In The Shell, Dominion Tank Police, Orion and many more.

At the Shirow Masamune / Ghost In The Shell genga exhibition and getting misty eyed seeing all his original drawings. Absolutely manga hall of fame stuff. ?? pic.twitter.com/Gyp0RdfEGx

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 9, 2025

The art book is an unadulterated, no-nonsense volume with nary a page of text and is packed literally from cover to cover with Shirow’s bold and colorful illustrations, numbering some 260 in total. At double the page count, the scope of the contents covered well exceeds what was collected in his excellent 1992 art book Intron Depot ( read my review here ).

A question that many ‘old fashioned’ Shirow fans would perhaps like answered is, how much of his digital art is included ( or rather, preferably not included ) in this book ? And the answer is, surprisingly little; I guesstimate about 75% of the book’s contents cover his older, fully hand painted work, and the rest are ‘hybrids’ that feature hand painted characters with digital backgrounds. There’s also some smattering of his ‘naughty’ works thrown in, thought most of them feature only partial nudity and not completely explicit adult stuff.

A flip-through preview of Shirow Masamune’s new art book, his biggest one yet. Large format softcover, 304 pages. I’ll review it soon. Purchase links in comments below ? pic.twitter.com/YLX41JAo1r

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 16, 2025

This sumptuous volume is a much awaited ( and needed ) monograph for the Ghost In The Shell creator, packing in all the best illustrated works from his rich oeuvre of manga, and then some. A must have for all Shirow Masamune fans; this one gets my top recommendations.

P.S. – If you also own a copy of his 1992 art book Intron Depot, I personally won’t trade it away; the many interesting captions found in the book provide great insight into Shirow’s work, and none of them are found in this new book.

Please also note that this book is NOT the official catalog for the ‘The World Of Shirow Masamune Manga Exhibition’; that is a whole different art book that I will review separately at a later date.

“Shirow Masamune Art Works In The Shell 士郎正宗の世界展 公式原画集” details :

– Dimensions – 22.6 x 2.4 x 29.7 cm
– Softcover, 304 pages
– Full color, in Japanese

  
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